Second Life's Spaceport Bravo Needs Donations To Survive

The creation of real world rocket scientists and aerospace engineers, Spaceport Bravo is a scale-model extension of the International Space Museum, a landmark site in Second Life for the last three years and an indispensable educational resource. (See for yourself: Direct SLurl teleport at this link.) The proprietors of Bravo, however, are having trouble maintaining Bravo's land costs, and so far, have been unable to get official recognition as a US non-profit (which will decrease land costs.) An anonymous donor is offering to match community donations 1-to-1, and keep it operational until 501c3 status goes through. Here's more info on the dire status of Bravo, and here's the groups' Paypal donation page. Image credit: slispaceflightmuseum.org.

Comments

[Adric Antfarm]

We should give, but it would be nice to see Linden step up and match or even better (work with them on land costs, etc).

Unless of course they are anon just trying to avoid setting the precedence of land costs being less than set in stone if you yell help.

[Ann Otoole]

With the mass influx of ripper tools LL is allowing you can kiss all of SL goodbye over the next few months. Nobody is supporting anything and business is dead. The micro economy is over. Phillip must be proud of his accomplishment of watching people build tens of thousands of dreams and then watch his little malcontent college friends drive around in the party van doing drugs and burning them all to the ground giggling like little imps the entire time.

And then go draw on LL's door with sidewalk chalk like dogs marking a hydrant.

This is Second Life. This is Linden Lab. The dream of corporations flooding to SL is as empty as a sion chicken farmer's future earnings potential.

[rikomatic]

I've always been a big fan of the Spaceflight Museum, one of the first destinations I send newbies to. So I'm sad to hear that they are in dire straits.

I'll be donating, I hope others do too.

[Firery Broome]

I strongly encourage everyone who has used these sims in their educational presentations to faculty and administrators, teachers who have uses these sims in their courses, or those who put these sims on their must-visit list for newbies, to please add a few Lindens to the cause. This is a highly commendable example of how Second Life can be used as an educational tool. Let's not have it disappear off the map one day like Svarga!

[Robert Graf]

Linden Labs kept tier fees too high for too long and now the chickens are coming home to roost. The Spaceflight Museum should consider moving onto one of the opensim grids like OSgrid. They would be very welcome there and cut their monthly expenses by 90%+. Instead of continuing to fork over tier to a company that doesn't deserve it, come on over to the "dark side". With all the tools available to backup builds, inventory, and entire regions it should be relatively painless to move onto your own hypergrid or to attach to OSgrid. ;)_~~~

[Rocket Sellers]

In order to move Spaceport Bravo to OS grid, ISM would need cooperation from the volunteer creators who built the place. Most of them are no longer active with the spaceflight museum. For instance Jimbo Perhaps, who created the amazing space shuttle there and a majority of the rockets and spacecraft on Spaceport Alpha, has already turned down ISM's request to export his builds to open sim.

[Robert Graf]

There are lots of good builders out there who would have no problem with helping you rebuild your space within the opensim/OSgrid world. Builders who attempt to force you to stay within SL, no matter what, are people I would not do business with. Sounds kind of petty to hold you hostage like that. Whatever Jimbo created can be recreated or improved upon. ;)_~~~

[Rocket Sellers]

Robert, you miss the point. The spaceflight museum is not a business. It was built by volunteers, for fun. It's not holding anyone hostage to just say no when asked to volunteer the un-fun hours it would take to reconstitute on opensim.

[Robert Graf]

Rocket, you're missing my point entirely. Its precisely because the museum is not a business that you should consider moving to another grid. The Spaceflight Museum has been used in countless blog posts, books, etc. to promote Linden Labs/Second Life. The builders have probably used the museum to show off their building capabilities to get other work in SL. But now that the museum is unable to continue paying such high tier look at how they are responding to you. Linden Labs - Pay up or else. lol The Builders - You can't use my build if you take it to another grid. lol

As far as unfun hours, once the move is made it is made. You can backup your individual builds and the region(s) as a whole. Take them wherever you want without being tied down to a particular grid. Thats the beauty of it. Freedom from being tied down to one particular grid or the whims of a particular builder. ;)_~~~

[Rocket Sellers]

Robert, it seems you mistook me for someone involved with the spaceflight museum. I'm just a fan of the rockets, and the rocket builders. And a previous donor to emergency fund raising drives.

[Robert Graf]

Rocket, the main point of my previous posts is that alternatives exist for those willing to seek them out. The days of being tied down to one grid or tied down by a builder's whims are over. Grid Freedom exists for those who let go of the mindset that Linden Labs/SL is the only way to go in every circumstance. Peace, Love, Grid Freedom! lol ;)_~~~

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A special thanks to Wagner James Au for writing this article. As part of the ISM planning staff I appreciate any publicity and the donations planned by the people above. The conversation about Linden Labs both negative and well negative is fascinating, but the reality is that the ISM is in Second Life and to stay there we need additional donations. Moving over to the "dark side" as suggested is an interesting idea, and I appreciate any and all ideas on behalf of the ISM, but even with the most optimistic projection it would take months. Until then the ISM has to stay alive in Second Life. With help we can.